You're navigating conflicts between team members and stakeholders. How do you keep the project on track?

Early indicators of conflict can be recognized. You can know that there is conflict when you observe one's body language. Other indicators are when there are disagreements regardless of issues and when people withhold bad news. Increased lack of respect, open disagreements, and display of and desire for power are other indicators of the presence of conflict. Any conflicts that surface must be depersonalized and dealt with early, either between individuals or within the collective team. Treat differences of opinion as indicative of incomplete sharing of relevant information and keep asking questions. Keep the attitude that holding different views is both natural and healthy to team building and get to the root of the problem with queries.

Get everyone on a call or in a meeting room. You then need to get all the priorities laid out for everyone to interact with, then they need to be ranked in order of importance. This needs to be a team exercise and everyone needs to feel like they are being heard. If its a joint decision it's normally a lot easier for everyone to progress in the same direction.

Em um projeto de construção de um complexo comercial, surgiram conflitos entre a equipe de design e os stakeholders devido a mudanças frequentes nos requisitos. Organizei reuniões semanais para garantir que todas as partes pudessem discutir suas preocupações e sugestões. Essa comunicação aberta ajudou a resolver os conflitos rapidamente e manteve o projeto no cronograma.

Define the root cause of the conflict: When conflict arises in one’s team, we need to ask ourselves why the team members are arguing with one another, check whether there is a deeper personality conflict involved and if any member was becoming stubborn or not. It is worthwhile to check whether the individual concerned insisted on getting his way or not. Answers to these questions will help one uncover the root cause of the conflict as to whether it's a behavioral or a situational problem. Ask questions that encourage a speaker to expand his or her points, with lines of reasoning. Refer back to points made earlier and build on those ideas to get the speakers to explain the reasons behind their opinions, making it impersonal and logical.

Em um projeto de desenvolvimento habitacional, conflitos surgiram devido a atrasos no fornecimento de materiais. Em vez de atribuir culpas, focamos em encontrar fornecedores alternativos e ajustar o cronograma de forma que os atrasos fossem minimizados. Essa abordagem proativa ajudou a manter o moral da equipe e o progresso do projeto.

Letting everyone constructively share his or her frustrations will let the team move on to solutions. It has to be remembered that one of the reasons a team is created is to get varying opinions on how to solve problems or meet a common objective , purpose or Goal . Allowing people with different perspectives and skills to air their ideas without interruption is one good way to gather more functional views. And now, reminding them of the common objective frequently, will steer them to come to a conclusive and acceptable solution.

Collaborating approach is the high point of conflict handling, being both assertive and cooperative. It requires high emotional intelligence of all participants and their willingness to come up with unique win-win solutions. However, this type of solution demands emotional detachment and rational thinking and would often take time. It involves a commitment to a shared goal and interdependence that comes from the understanding that what is accomplished together is greater than what could be realized individually. So, drilling this down in all meetings with Teams, will pave the path for each member being committed to ensuring that smoother WIN WIN situations prevail at all times.

The best kind of conflict is a productive one. However, if the team is unable to maintain constructive conflict, preventing confrontation altogether would be the next best move to make. However It is always better to meet conflict head-on, plan and communicate that frequently. Be honest about concerns and agree to disagree. Understanding healthy disagreements will facilitate better decisions. Discuss differences openly. Continually stress the importance of following policies and guidelines and communicate that honestly. An Action Plan with roles, responsibilities, relationships, milestones, processes and procedures to resolve conflicts can be put in place to preempt such eventualities in the future